Wednesday, August 12th, marks the anniversary of several landmark events in Beatles history. . .
60 YEARS AGO TODAY – ON AUGUST 12th, 1960: Drummer Pete Best auditioned for the Beatles in his mother's Liverpool nightclub called the Casbah. Best was asked to join the group, which then included original bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, to begin a two-month residency in Hamburg, Germany. Two years later, on August 16th, 1962, Best was fired from the group and replaced by Ringo Starr.
Pete Best was asked if following the audition, he knew immediately that he had the job as the Beatles' drummer: “No. Not at that stage, because at the end of the day, yeah, I'd agreed to go to Hamburg, but the audition was there. I've always queried the fact of the audition. Because in those days people jumped ship from band-to-band so the audition factor was very much a case of like, 'You're making me audition?' But the type of material they were playing, I was playing with my own band as well. So when they turned around and said, 'Do you know this one?' — it's like, okay, bash that one off, 'Do you know this one?' — bash that one off.”